Online Fines Are Fine

NO ONE WANTS TO get a parking ticket, but at least paying the fines for them is going to be more convenient now. Lubbock Municipal Court is accepting credit card payments online for parking fines.

We credit the city of Lubbock with coming up with a way to make paying fines easier and more palatable. Visitors to the city's home page at www.ci.lubbock.tx.us are just a few points and clicks away from finding the municipal court Web site and paying their fines. A receipt is available by e-mail.

Other options for dealing with parking tickets are paying by mail, paying in person by going to the court at Ninth Street and Avenue J and standing in what is often a long line at the counter, writing the city prosecutor, setting a trial date for the ticket or, of course, simply not paying the ticket at all.

We do not recommend the latter, but many illegal parkers take that route. We are hoping the online payment option will result in a higher percentage of parking tickets being collected.

It is unquestionably going to be the method of choice of some people for paying parking ticket fines.

City governments should do all they can to be as "citizen friendly" as possible, and making it easier to pay parking fines is a good example of this.

The new online service is actually costing Municipal Court money. The city has to pay a percentage of the fine as a fee to the credit card company. For that reason, the heftier fines can't be paid by credit cards because the fees are higher.

That should be addressed legislatively, to allow cities to add the credit card fees to the fines for people who want to pay higher fines online. The convenience would make the extra cost worth it for many people.